One improvement for Orion spacecraft

Kimmo Huosionmaa

The normal rifle could launch Highly Enriched Plutonium or Californium bullets in the back of the craft, and then that ammunition would target the electromagnetic radiation by using the parabolic antenna in the back of the craft. The gun would release the bullet in the middle of the antenna, and the bullet would go thru the focal point of radiation, what would cause the nuclear fission in that piece of the highly enriched nuclear isotope. In this system standard ammunition, that is filled with gunpowder and that would make the structure of that system simpler than some magnetic rails or some other electromagnetic solutions.


That would give a more sensitive punch, and makes easier to adjust the speed of the device. Sometimes those bullets were planned to fill with Lithium, and the radiation would be mixed radio and laser rays. In fact, the normal Lithium batteries could be used in that motor. The energy of this spacecraft would get from nuclear reactors, what gives enough power to lasers and other devices of that craft. This thing would be similar, what is planned for use in the "Daedalus".  The hypothetical space probe, what would sometimes in the future travel to the Alfa Centauri. Why I'm writing about "Orion" and "Daedalus" in the same text, is the propulsion of those spacecraft are basically the same, but "Orion" uses fission and "Daedalus" uses nuclear fusion for creating the power for accelerating the spacecraft.


Using a nuclear reactor for pumping the energy for fusion system allows making fusion motor application in the spacecraft. The fusion system in this hypothetical spacecraft is not self-operating or self-maintaining. It needs the outer power source for function. Or maybe fission would be used at the beginning of the operation, and then the ship would transfer to use fusion pellets.


Both systems can be installed in the same motor, and changing the tank would be only needed for an operation. In this case, another tank involves the fissile bullets, and another one would involve the fusion material, what would shoot thru the system by small rifle. In this case, the magnetic accelerators would be unnecessary, because the accelerating for the fuel capsules would happen with standard ammunition, what can be installed in the ammunition belt.


And even the minigun would be used in that mission. That would make "Daedalus" or "Orion" possible to shoot right away to the other planets. In the real life, the normal turbogenerator could give enough energy for starting nuclear fission in the pellets, what is filler with Californium, but would the fusion possible. That is the question mark.  That system would be used to send the space probe in our own Solar system, but other stars are the little bit too far away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)